by and | Jul 19, 2022 4:48 pm | Comments (15)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Tony Rizzo on site on Orange Street in Tuesday's heat.
As Tony Rizzo sought shade to supervise workers laying the foundation for yet more new downtown apartments, he was reminded of the brick oven heat that serves as the inception of another New Haven production: Wood fired, thin crust pizza.
by | Jul 15, 2022 2:33 pm | Comments (4)
Early contender for best-edited high-impact social-media post in 2022 campaigns: Instagram video from Steve Orosco's State Senate campaign.
Steve Orosco is hitting barber shops and knocking on strangers’ doors — and he’s having a blast, except when he gets to the part of asking for money.
Continue reading ‘In Barber's Chair And On The Doors, Candidate Seeks "Grassroots" Solutions’
by and | Jul 14, 2022 3:35 pm | Comments (9)
Nora Grace-Flood Photo
Paul DiMauro nourishes his communal plants.
As children with flushed faces and cherry cheeks raced around a playground in the summer heat, Paul DiMauro enjoyed a similar sense of freedom a few feet away — spending another morning of his retirement tending to seeds that will soon sprout into rosy tomatoes in a shared community space.
by | Jul 8, 2022 2:26 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Stephan Torquati at WNHH FM.
One story that has stuck with Stephan Torquati about his time as a cop didn’t spark headlines. It didn’t earn him a commendation. No one landed in the hospital. He didn’t make the arrest.
The story sticks with him because it shows how police do their job right. It shows why, as he retires after more than 20 years on New Haven’s force, he leaves with no regrets — and with pride in the profession.
by | Jul 8, 2022 12:06 pm | Comments (7)
Among the many pressing issues raised by the controversy of police mishandling of an arrestee named Richard “Randy” Cox, one has gone largely unspoken: how the stress of the job impacts officers’ mental health.
Continue reading ‘Cox Case Concern: Officers' Mental Health’
by | Jul 5, 2022 3:34 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass File Photo
John Velleca Tuesday at WNHH FM.
The mistreatment of Richard “Randy” Cox reflects two related problems with policing “culture” — and presents a chance to change it.
So argued retired New Haven Assistant Police Chief John Velleca.
Continue reading ‘Velleca: Cox Case Reflects Need For Cop Culture Change’
by | Jul 1, 2022 11:26 am | Comments (0)
Author Sarah Darer Littman at WNHH FM.
The reality of what Sarah Darer Littman had gotten herself into with her latest book hit home as she was reading the proofs.
by | Jun 30, 2022 3:19 pm | Comments (21)
Hugh McQuaid/CTNJ Photo
GOP guv candidate Stefanowski puts gas prices at center of campaign stops.
Stefanowski on "Dateline."
Bob Stefanowski is willing to discuss abortion and guns. But what he really wants to talk about? Gas prices and inflation.
by | Jun 28, 2022 1:45 pm | Comments (4)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Lamont Stewart on his morning walk break.
Lamont Stewart walked across the intersection of Elm Street and Church Street finishing his last bites of a plain toasted bagel with cream cheese from Bruegger’s Bagels, taking a morning break from his shift at Technolutions.
Continue reading ‘Without Illusions, Lamont Stewart Makes The Most Of His Morning Walk’
by | Jun 27, 2022 9:04 am | Comments (1)
If Brendan Sharkey has a say, then the state government will be going bigger for towns and cities over the coming years.
Continue reading ‘Sharkey: Time For State Government To Think Big’
by | Jun 23, 2022 11:03 am | Comments (0)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Mark Lamoureux.
Walking home to Wooster Street from a cleaning at the dentist on the first day of summer, Mark Lamoureux planned to get to some student papers — then some stretch out at yoga, followed by some family time.
by | Jun 21, 2022 6:01 pm | Comments (3)
Maritza Bond is preparing to ramp up her campaign staff and go full blast on media platforms now with an expected $400,000 cash infusion for her quest to become secretary of the state.
Continue reading ‘Bond: I Crossed The Public-Financing Threshold’
by | Jun 21, 2022 1:42 pm | Comments (0)
Courtney Luciano Photo at work.
Maissie Musick was whipping iced lattes, cold brews, and drip coffee — and, in between serving walk-in customers, claiming to be a summer girl through and through.
by | Jun 17, 2022 9:11 am | Comments (2)
Lisa Saunders.
Lisa Saunders was working out at Edgewood Park early to get her morning calisthenics reps in using the playground as her personal gym before starting the rest of the day.
Saunders used to weigh 400 pounds and now guides other people of color in weight loss based on her personal experience while taking part in an overeaters anonymous group.
Continue reading ‘Word On The Street: Park Pre-Work Workout Sets The Tone’
by | Jun 13, 2022 8:49 am | Comments (0)
If representative democracy is the goal, then it’s the people who count.
That’s how Wolcott Mayor Thomas Dunn feels. He came on the “Municipal Voice,” a co-production of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and WNHH 103.5 FM, to talk about his time as mayor, being a rare successful independent in this state, and why he thinks that will be more common in the future
Continue reading ‘How An Unaffiliated Mayor Sidesteps Partisan Warfare’
by | Jun 10, 2022 4:40 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Jacobson at South Genesee Street vigil following murder of 18-year-old Anthony Strother, whom he knew and worked with.
Mayorally nominated next-Police Chief Karl Jacobson has two words he wants to bring to the beat: “procedural justice,” a way to build community trust and police legitimacy.
by | Jun 10, 2022 9:36 am | Comments (0)
Kristen Ford performs her new song "Best Friends" on WNHH FM.
Onstage, a touring indie singer-songwriter was singing a Mother’s Day song paying tribute to a woman who made a difference in her life.
On a stool near the back of Cafe Nine, a woman retrieved a packet of tissues. She pulled one out. She needed to use it several times before the song was done.
The song was about her: The performer onstage, Kristen Ford, is her stepdaughter. It wasn’t the first time the stepmom, Diane Whittie, had shed tears over the song.
You didn’t have to be related to Ford to be touched by the song. You didn’t even have to be a mom or a stepmom (though if you have kids, it may have helped).
“Happy mother’s day / Even though it’s not your name …” Ford sang. “I will always be your kin …” She had the whole audience, not just her stepmom, with her at each step.
Ford’s unvarnished, passionate vocals added to the poignancy, as did the guitar arrangement, which made use of open high strings as a foil for a descending chord progression. Her skills as an arranger were on even more obvious display as her high-energy set continued; using a guitar, a microphone, and a loop pedal, she was able to create the sound of a full band, and like the best loop-pedal users, she made the creation of that sound part of the show, as the audience got to watch each song constructed in front of them.
Ford was in New Haven on a stop in a national “Pride” Tour that doubles as an introduction to the tracks on War in the Living Room, her new (and fifth) album.
Before heading to Boston for her next tour stop, Ford played “Mother’s Day” and stripped-down versions of two songs from the new album amid a discussion about her music and career during a visit to WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. Click on the above video to watch her perform the album’s first single, “Grey Sky Blue.”
Ford, a familiar face over the years on stages in New Haven — where her father and stepmother live — has seen her career start to take off. In addition to the new album and tour, she has an acting role and two songs on the soundtrack album to the 2021 film Valentine Crush. (She plays a roller derby-er named Knockout Nancy.) She has embarked on side projects including Evrgrn, a project with cellist Kels Cordare, and the hip-hop duo Blu Janes, with rapper MC Genesis Blu.
Based in Nashville, Ford is described as an “indie rock singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist.” I might describe her sound as “Ani DiFranco meets Tracy Chapman meets the Ramones.” (At Cafe Nine she updated “Give Me A Reason” to reflect on American’s downward slide toward fascism.)
Whatever labels one tries to attach to her, Ford is a talent to watch as she continues spreading her wings. She returns to Connecticut for a June 16 stop at Bridgeport’s Park City Music before the tour heads west.
by | Jun 7, 2022 3:26 pm | Comments (0)
Courtney Luciana Photo
As cars raced by the I‑95 Exit 5 entrance ramp on State Street during the morning rush hour, “Keith Nauer” was “flying a sign.” It read, “Homeless. Help. Thank You. God bless you all.”
by | Jun 6, 2022 12:40 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
State Rep. Robyn Porter and Katurah Bryant at WNHH FM.
Neighbors on both sides of the Newhallville-Newhall border turned a threat into an opportunity.
by | Jun 2, 2022 5:56 pm | Comments (6)
NHPD
Ghost gun recovered in connection with Maple Street gunfire.
Paul Bass Photo
Apostle Valerie Washington with Jordan Strother, brother of homicide victim Anthony Strother, at vigil on South Genesee Street.
A group of young people, out for revenge for the killing of an 18-year-old, opened fire on a Maple Street house before speeding away in a car.
The murdered man’s 15-year-old brother was not in that car.
Chalk up that fact — along with the subsequent arrest of the four young people and the removal of two “ghost guns” from the streets — to the power of focused police work … and, perhaps, prayer.
Continue reading ‘Probe, Prayers Target Shooting Retaliation’
by | May 30, 2022 9:39 am | Comments (1)
Aldo Salazar.
Aldo Salazar was sweating bullets while running his usual five-mile route from his place around Orange Street downtown to East Rock Park and back, before heading to a lab where he’s working on a different kind of circuit.
by | May 24, 2022 5:51 pm | Comments (7)
Paul Bass Photo
Teachers and "structured literacy" advocates Sarah Levine and Timothy Gersch at WNHH FM.
According to one side, the issue is settled: “Balanced literacy” has failed, and cities like New Haven must change how they teach reading or continue to worsen the achievement gap and hold back another generation.
According to another side, the jury’s still out.
Continue reading ‘New Haven Weighs Whether To Shift Reading Strategy’
by | May 23, 2022 4:05 pm | Comments (3)
Brisa Mendoza.
As downtown streets closed Monday to make way for a thousand parading Yale graduates, Brisa Mendoza was posted at the center of the brick Broadway center island reading Daughters of Sparta and taking it all in before starting her shift at The Yale Bookstore.
by | May 20, 2022 4:33 pm | Comments (7)
Melissa Bailey Photo
The late Winfred Rembert in the Newhall Street home where he made the magic happen.
Now that the late Winfred Rembert has won a Pulitzer prize, is it time for New Haven finally to honor its most talented artist of the last half century?
by | May 19, 2022 3:34 pm | Comments (1)
Courtney Luciana Photo
Timmy Turner.
Timothy Turner was walking across the Stop & Shop on Whalley Avenue in the pouring rain sporting a Chicago Bulls Bucket hat, a sweatshirt, and jeans. He didn’t have an umbrella, but he still wore a bright smile across his face.